If the computer originally came with a backup software disk, you can try contacting gateway for a replacement. If the backup software was instead on a dedicated partition of the original drive you will need an XP home system disk, in which case you can probably get a better deal off the shelf at a retailer. Be sure you get the full version and not an upgrade, as you don't have any windows system currently installed for an upgrade to detect. If your Gateway has a Windows XP COA affixed and you can borrow a full XP Home installation disk from a friend you can install from that disk inputting your number from your COA when prompted. (don't use your friends COA) Microsoft will recognize this as a genuine restored installation so long as you have not changed any other major hardware in the system, and you input the same information for activation as you did originally. And you can get the service packs and other updates just as you always have.

Or: you could become a Linux user for free. For the Linux newbie I would have to recommend the Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS for their user-friendliness. Again that's FREE! if you try it and don't like it you're out exactly $0.00! My systems have been Linux exclusively for about 7 years, and am kinda partial to the Mandriva distributions, though I tried PCLinuxOS a while back and have had that on this system ever since, though it has it's quirks. But don't all systems?

If you find my suggestions to be helpful, please share with us some details so that others may benefit from knowing the whole story. Thank you!

I switched to Linux 4 years ago when I had a similar problem. It's worked for me! I've learned a lot about computers since then, and had a good bit of fun being a part of beta testing and forums.Another thing to consider is your XP system might become useless in a week or two, depending on how much you play on the internet. XP updates and maintainance have been cancelled by microsoft about a week ago. Guess they want everyone to move on to vistas now.So give Linux a try, Ubuntu is free and has the widest hardware support, and unlike XP, will be updated and supported for the next year and more.

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An unmountable boot volume error suggests that you may have a hard disk failure or at least some corruption to the hard disk which the system uses to boot Windows XP. To try to resolve this problem you would need to use a specialist boot CD to try to repair the disk errors. One such disk is Hiren's Boot CD which can be downloaded as a CD image file (.ISO) then would need to be burnt on to a blank CD then the computer booted from this CD.On the initial Hiren's boot menu, select DOS programs, then select Disk tools before selecting HDAT2 to perform the disk repair actions.HDAT2 can take some time to complete depending on the size of your internal disk drive and the number of bad sectors or other errors encountered - the tool will attempt to repair bad sectors by reading, verifying, writing and re-reading / verifying the data.If the disk can be recovered, then you may be lucky and the system will be able to boot but otherwise, you may still need to do some further recovery work for the operating system, in which case you may need a Windows install CD or other recovery CD media.

If HDAT2 finds a lot of unrecoverable errors then you should seriously consider replacing the drive - you should be able to recover data from the old drive using other tools on the Hiren's Boot CD, including booting the CD mini-XP environment and using the tools there too.

Hi ,THis ones a freebee , 1st , try reformatting the hard drive , then before you reboot , load your recovery disk on to drive C:\ , , keep in the recovery disk and reload the operating system before you reboot ......Let me know if this works for you , if not I can advise futher free of charge ........Goodluck Roy

I'd first check that you have the hard drives installed correctly as you can have a primary and secondary drive ect. If you need any of the files I'm unsure but If you don't mind those files deleted you could reinstall windows xp. But from a different computer you could get the drivers needed for xp. Install the operating system xp for example and then from another computer dvd drivers such as network(Probably the most important) you can add those and reconnect to the internet and from there download the other drivers directly (IE video drivers). At least check the hard drive connections to see that they are the way you want them. Hope that helps somewhat.

Turn off the ComputerTurn back on and Press F11 repeatedly when the message "Press F11 to start recovery" is displayed.
The recovery will load and display a menu of options:

Full System Restore (with Backup): This options will move all Hard Disk
contents to the "c:\My Backup" directory and install a new copy of
Windows. This option preserves your existing data files, however all
applications and settings will need to be reinstalled. This option
requires 4GB of free Hard Disk space for the new OS.

Since they installed a generic copy of xp, there are none of the sony installed add-ons present on the computer. go here to view the available downloads for your system provided by sony, you will have to select the "EVERYTHING" tab to see the giga downloads if it does not load there.
Otherwise you will have to contact sony for a recovery disk specific to your system.

Are you able to successfully enter Safe Mode? Are you getting a brief blue screen before the computer restarts?

A possible solution (if you can't get into Safe Mode to further diagnose the issue) is to repair the Windows installation with a Windows XP Home CD. If you know someone with such a disk you can use that with the product key that should be on a sticker on the back of your computer. Otherwise, HP should be able to send you an XP CD since you have an authorized copy of Windows on your computer.